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NEW YORK, June 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CE Week, in partnership with Living in Digital Times, announces today the winners of the 3^rd annual "Young Innovators to Watch" award competition. For the third year in a row, a panel of industry-expert judges selected exceptional projects created by NYC middle school, high school, and college students, all under the age of 20. The Young Innovators to Watch recipients will be honored for their outstanding achievements at a special awards presentation with Miguel Gamiño, New York City Chief Technology Officer, as guest emcee at CE Week on July 12, 2017.

The Young Innovators to Watch competition honors students who are using technology and STEM/STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) skills to create the products of tomorrow.  The projects are ranked on their creativity, user design, use of STEM and STEAM, scalability and civic mindedness. The winners' projects include an algorithm that accurately measures lithium-ion battery percentages and a smartphone device that records customizable studio-quality sound. These projects also rise to the challenge to resolve existing societal issues, such as water quality, food waste and physical injuries sustained by the visually impaired.

"This is hard stuff. Students working in tech and the sciences need some positive reinforcement and there's no better place to recognize them then at CE Week where they can see the most exciting tech innovation and careers," says Robin Raskin, the program's creator. "Being recognized at an industry technology showcase is really empowering for these winners."

"I'm extremely impressed with the students' drive to improve how we participate in the world, today and in the future," says Miguel Gamiño, New York City Chief Technology Officer. Gamiño, who is the official emcee of the awards and spearheads major initiatives aimed at using technology to improve our City for all New Yorkers, continues, "These forward-thinking students and their ideas inspire me and my team to keep working toward a stronger, smarter New York City."

Proudly presenting the 2017 Young Innovators to Watch Award Recipients:

• Sharon Lin (18), Stuyvesant High School, "White Water": An app for underdeveloped communities that identifies bacteria and abiotic particles in water based on a photo sample, making it easier for underdeveloped communities to take preventative measures to avoid exposure to water-borne illnesses like malaria.

• Priya Mittal (17), The Dalton School, "GroGreen": An app that allows restaurants and juice bars to purchase imperfect produce directly from farms at a 20% mark down to reduce food waste. Farmers can still sell produce that they would normally throw away and increase profit margins.

• Deeya Patel (14), Divek Patel (12), Nitin Seshadri (13), Karan Keerthy (11), Sriram Pankanti (11), Srinath Duri (10), St. Augustine School, Somers Middle School, Briarcliff Middle School, "ADVISE—Assistance for Dog & Visually Impaired Subjects": A wearable device that uses a Kinect sensor to alert the visually impaired to obstacles. It identifies the size, location and number of obstacles and provides an audible or haptic feedback to the person.

• Abigail Brown (18), Yousef Alsayid (17), Curtis Mason (17), Mark Ayad (16), College of Staten Island, "MACAY Labs HiFi Mod": A high-fidelity speaker designed to attach to a smart phone, allowing users to customize their audio experience with studio-quality sound. Audiophiles and musicians can record with compatible equipment and share their sound on the go.

• Michael Klamkin (16), Staten Island Technical High School, "Dual Extended Kalman Filtering": A new approach to monitoring the state of charge of lithium-ion polymer batteries. Using an algorithm that combines an electrical circuit model, MATLAB and Dual Extended Kalman Filtering measures phone battery life more efficiently than the battery life monitor built in to a phone.

The winning projects will each receive a $1,000 scholarship provided by CE Week, NY and the Kay Family Foundation, a gift card provided by B&H Photo, a special speaker system provided by Monster, and a MiP Robot provided by WowWee Toys.

The Young Innovators to Watch Awards Presentation takes place on Wednesday, July 12^th from 4 to 5 p.m. EDT at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City (125 W. 18^th Street between 6^th and 7^th Avenues). Members of the media, government officials and educators are welcome to attend. To RSVP, contact Elizabeth Tran at Elizabeth@LKPRinc.com or 646-484-4575.

Winners were chosen by a panel of esteemed judges consisting of educators, technology experts, and previous award recipients:

• Warren Buckleitner, CEO, Children's Technology Review
• Tonda Bunge Sellers, President, Digital Kids Conference
• Brian Cohen, Chairman of the Board of Directors, New York Angels
• Kerry Goldstein, Producer, TransformingEDU
• Diane Levitt, Senior Director, K-12 education, Cornell Tech
• Tom O'Connell, Vice President of Programs and Partnerships, Code/Interactive
• Surendra Persaud, 2015 Young Innovators to Watch Recipient, "The Young Hackers"
• Vincent Ponzo, Managing Director, Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center, Columbia Business School
• Emily Post, 2017 Young Innovators to Watch Recipient, "FindingClover"
• Robin Raskin, Founder, Living in Digital Times

About CE Week
CE Week is the consumer electronics (CE) industry's official event in New York City. The official mid-year meeting, conference and new technology showcase includes the CE Week Exhibits, which is the site of CE Week's largest exhibition hall and conference program. CE Week is produced annually by the Consumer Technology Group of NAPCO Media, publisher of Dealerscope and Technology Integrator magazines, and producer of FutureVision and Dealerscope Top Retailer Summit. For more information, visit www.ceweekny.com and keep up with our latest news on Facebook and Twitter.

About Living in Digital Times
Founded by veteran technology journalist Robin Raskin, Living in Digital Times brings together the most knowledgeable leaders and the latest innovations impacting both technology and lifestyle. It helps companies identify and act on emerging trends, create compelling company narratives, and do better business through strong network connections. Living in Digital Times produces technology conferences, exhibits and events at CES and other locations throughout the year by lifestyle verticals. Core brands include Digital Health Summit, Digital Money Forum, FitnessTech, Baby Tech, Kids@Play, Family Tech Summit, TransformingEDU, FamilyTech TV, Beauty Tech, Wearables and FashionWare runway show, Mobile Apps Showdown, Last Gadget Standing, Robots on the Runway and the KAPi Awards. The company also works with various foundations and manages the Appreneur Scholar awards program for budding mobile entrepreneurs, as well as the Young Innovators to Watch awards recognizing student STEAM innovations in New York City.  For more information, visit www.LivinginDigitalTimes.com and keep up with our latest news on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Kristen Joerger
LKPR, Inc. for Young Innovators to Watch
646-484-4577/ 603-494-3295 (mobile)
Kristen@LKPRinc.com   

Jayme Schwartz
social4media for CE Week
646-370-3988
jayme@social4media.com

SOURCE Living in Digital Times